Brody Is 6 Months

Brody's 6-month birthday was April 17th. He is so stinking cute at this age, I could just eat him up.

He is very active. He doesn't gently "bat" the toys on his play gym, he grabs the bar, rips it down, and covers his head in the process!

He doesn't just reach for the toy bar on his bouncy seat, he kicks it as hard as he can until it shoots across the room.

I have started just lying him on a blanket in the floor, but does he stay on the blanket? No, sirree. He's halfway across the room before you realize it. He's not crawling, mind you, he's just figured out how to use put his legs up into a "bridge" to scootch around. It's quite the sight. I love it, though. He's all boy!

Brody loves to talk. It is so cute how he tries to have "conversations" with his sisters. Sometimes Abby will fake laugh to get him to start laughing at her. Sydney will make high-pitched noises that he can imitate. I really need to video that and post that.

I love everything about having little girls. I love bows and dresses and pink and purple and princess stuff and cooking - the whole kit-and-caboodle. But I have to tell you there is something special about my little boy. I am a girly girl but I love my little boy in a way I didn't know I could! God just knew that I needed two sweet precious girls to love first and then gave me a sweet little boy that I could savor every moment with next. If I could change my kids' birth order or gender, I would not at all. God gave us exactly what we needed. He always does.

I am going to do my best to not turn Brody into a Mama's Boy but I tell you now - it will be a challenge - I just love him to pieces. Mmmm!

I have to tell you. I have been in denial that he is 6-months old. The routine we're in with our 6-feeding-a-day schedule is working just fine, it is predictable and it is simple! We're happy, he's happy. However, I have officially been told by the pediatrician to start rice cereal. That was yesterday. I started today.

He ate the cereal like a champ. He is going to be a good eater, I think. I wanted to post a video of Stephen giving him the rice cereal at lunch. I fed Brody cereal at breakfast but couldn't figure out how to video myself holding him and feeding him at the same time. When Stephen came home from lunch I handed Brody and the cereal over to him to shoot the footage. I was wearing an orange t-shirt. Now, I don't want to be in one of Brody's videos wearing orange. I wouldn't want to send the wrong message. None of that matters NOW, though - I accidentally deleted the video off the camera. It has to do with my no disk space issue. Another story for another day. I'll video Brody eating rice cereal on his third attempt and post it later, God-willing.

Sydney Turns Three

Sydney turned 3 on Friday. One of my friends said she thought her birthday was on April 12th. That's probably because she was born at 11:58 pm on April 11th. The doctors wouldn't let me wait to push. It's just another one of those things I tried to plan and God had the last word. I laugh now every time I think about that! (For those of you that didn't know, April 12th is 11 days after Stephen's birthday and Abby's birthday is 11 days after mine - I know, it's lame.)

It is hard for me to believe that day was three years ago. I was secretly hoping for a boy up UNTIL the time that I started to labor...I started thinking about all the things I loved about little girls and all that I didn't know about boys. I was so excited Sydney was a little girl! She is such a blessing to us!

Sydney is so full of energy! She is our little performer. She loves to make people laugh, to sing for them or to dramatically react to something that happens. She puts all her energy into what she does, whether it is hugging you and telling you how much she loves you or just going to her room - it's full speed ahead, so watch out inanimate objects. She does fall a lot and scrape her knees, but she comes by that honestly. Her mother is quite clumsy!

We allowed her to choose all her favorite things for her birthday. This was her meal plan for the day:

• Breakfast: pumpkin oatmeal with milk (and she had a little coffee in her milk).
• Lunch: macaroni and cheese (with deceptively delicious cauliflower puree), broccoli, green beans, chocolate milk and a mini chocolate ice cream cone.
• Snack: PEANUT BUTTER and a Reese's cup
• Dinner: Boston Pizzeria - Two large adult-size pepperoni pizza slices, a sprite, half of her complimentary birthday cheesecake AND a lollipop

**Disclaimer: This does not reflect a normal day of eating in the Fowler household. :)

We told Sydney when she turns 3, she can eat peanut butter. She responded, "And when Abby turns 3, SHE can have soy butter!" :)

When the big day came, she was hesitant because we had been so strict about it before. I'm not so sure she trusted me when I told her it would not make her sick. And I wasn't sure it would not make her sick. I am grateful that she loves peanut butter and we did not need to borrow an epipen, afterall. She's started asking for it by the spoonful after her first taste. And since she loves chocolate so much, we would not be good parents if we deprived her of discovering the beauty of tasting chocolate and peanut butter together - enter Reese's cups!

Sydney's birthday party was a whole event in itself. She's been planning her party since before Christmas. The problem was that her party theme was ever changing. Since I couldn't ever "pin her down" to one theme, we threw her a "My Favorite Things" birthday party! This consisted of Dora invitations, a Care Bear cake topper, butterfly birthday hats, My Little Pony plates and My Little Pony napkins and pink princess cups. The menu consisted of chocolate frosted cupcakes with sprinkles and a little chocolate ice cream to wash it down - see messy pictures below:

haley, tess and sydney - lots of chocolate, everywhere!

sydney in one of her favorite gifts - a "horsey" dress (a.k.a. polo ralph lauren) that mimi gave her

macy (left) laughing and sydney and abby (right) "cheesing" for the camera

sydney cautiously blowing out her "fires"

macy and dayleah thoughtfully assisting sydney in the present opening :)

sydney's put her shoes on the wrong feet - i was so busy that morning i didn't notice until she was opening presents!

The Return to City Life

I really didn't think we lived in a "city". I still think of Greenville as being a town. But the kids and I just returned from a 4 day visit at my grandmother's house in Fountain Inn. Life is a little simpler there and a little slower paced. It was a nice break! Did you know you can still get a really good pizza for less than $10? Yeah, we ordered a large pizza at Tony's and it was only $8.99. And it was really good pizza!

Today, I was looking outside to see if it was raining and caught a glimpse of the horses, just hanging out, right by the fence where we could watch them. And we opened the windows in our bedroom and it was just woods all around. In some ways, Gran's house is like a little B&B, family style.

I so enjoyed the visit! I found out things about my grandmother I didn't know. I saw a picture she had given my grandfather for Christmas right after they were engaged. She was so beautiful in it! She had penned, "Because I love you, Christmas..." and then the year, which I do not remember- sorry!

I also found out when she was a little girl she realized all her brothers got to go outside and play when dinner was over but she had to stay and help clean up the kitchen. She told her mom that she was a boy and her name was "Jack" so she didn't have to do dishes anymore. It's a simple story that really makes me laugh. I can just see her walking into the kitchen with her hands on her hips making that declaration!

It is such a great feeling to hear stories about those who came before you. I love hearing stories about my grandmother's parents and siblings. I feel like I get to be transplanted to another time. At lunch, Gran was telling me they had cornbread and milk for dinner sometimes. I asked if they had anything with it, because cornbread and milk sounds more like a snack to me, but she said they ate huge lunches and would sometimes have leftover vegetables with their cornbread and milk. She was going to eat cornbread and milk tonight when we left - she took it home from the Coach House restaurant in Simpsonville. It IS good cornbread.

And did you know that loaf bread didn't exist back then? They never ate sandwiches or toast!?!? She said they just always ate biscuits - dripping with butter. Oh, I bet they were good biscuits, too. And everything they ate, with the exception of sugar, tea and coffee, was grown at their house - or they hunted it. Life was harder but simpler then. It's fun to think about what it would have been like.

Anyway, I feel like I was treated the last few days. Praise God for my 90 year old grandmother. She is still so healthy and plays with my kids like she's 65. Thank You for that gift, Jesus, You have been so good to us. Amen.

Detergent

I bought new dishwashing detergent to try. Electrasol tabs. Abby saw me opening one and asked what it was. Maybe she thought I was putting candy in the dishwasher. So I said, "It is diswasher cleaner, excuse me, diswashing detergent." I was taking the opportunity to teach her this new word, "detergent". I was wondering then why they call it detergent. Does it deter something? Dirt, germs? It sure doesn't seem to deter peanut butter off our bread knives or flour out of my measuring cups. Hmmm...

Easter Sunday

Friday, our family went to the church building for the first time on a Good Friday. It was so good to remember what a great price Christ had to pay for us. I really think the girls were both marked by it. Brody even watched the images of His crucifixion and was contently quiet, which was an answer to prayer!

We then attended the Easter service at our church building on Saturday night. Sunday morning I woke thinking about Easter. Unfortunately, I began the morning feeling guilty that I had not made a bigger deal of Easter baskets and was feeling like my kids were being robbed of the joy of waking up to a big basket full of goodies. I remembered the excitement I felt as a little one, the anticipation, sheer gladness of chocolate bunnies and the thought of an Easter bunny visiting my house - it made me feel special.

My thoughts were quickly placed in check Sunday morning - when I saw that Stephen put in The Passion of the Christ DVD. We were watching Jesus suffer and understanding how unworthy we were all over again. The girls were watching, too. Sydney didn't seem to understand the gravity of it, but Abby was taking it all in. (We did ask her to turn her head for certain parts but she watched most of it with us.)

Easter is all about God crushing his precious Son because He loves us so. Easter is about the sheer joy the women and disciples experienced when they realized the tomb was empty. I want my joy and my kids' joy to be because of God's power, faithfulness, love, His wonder. It is a blast to follow Him! The bunnies, chocolate and eggs are fun and are fine but if I miss HIM I've missed it all.

Sunday afternoon we drove to my grandmother's house. We then enjoyed a great Sunday lunch, a truly fun time with family and a high-energy egg hunt. The girls made memories there, too, I'm sure. I just hope that when they remember this Easter, they remember Christ most. I know I will! (Jesus, thank you!)

Here are some pictures we took at Gran's:

Another "Blonde" Moment

In high school my friends accused me of dying my hair darker. When my college friends didn't think I was "ditsy" I was so thrilled, but always knew they just didn't know me well enough.

I just realized that I totally missed an Easter Egg Hunt for my kids because I thought it was tomorrow - the rain date - but it was actually last Saturday. Saturday, the day we made Easter biscuits and were home doing nothing and could have totally been hiding eggs. I even RSVP'd yes as soon as I got the invitation.

It wasn't until I was reading a friend's blog this morning and saw her pictures of the egg hunt that I realized everybody was there but us and there are not two egg hunts at Emily Lee's house. Anyway, I have no idea how I looked at a perfectly clear invitation every day on my fridge and didn't realize it. I am so glad we don't keep our bodies in heaven, I will SO need a new brain when I get there!

Easter Biscuits

We made Easter biscuits today and Abby asked Stephen to read the story of Jesus' empty tomb while we ate them. It was a fun time. Here's the recipe:

Easter Biscuits

1 can refrigerated biscuit dough
large marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350F. Flatten dough into 3-inch circles. Let child place a large marshmallow in the center of each circle, then seal the dough around the marshallow. Place the biscuits, with their seam sides down, on a cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes. Cool the Easter biscuits before eating them and watch your child discover that the biscuits are empty inside - just like Jesus' tomb on Easter morning!

Recipe taken from a "Parent Page" at our church